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AOL Busted As "Obamacare Made Me Do It!" Lie Shot Down In Flames-Who Will Be Next?

As the top executive of a public company, it is Armstrong’s responsibility to do what he must to improve the bottom line—even if that involves ‘cost-shaming’ two AOL employees suffering the difficulties of caring for babies born with serious health challenges in order to pull off a reduction in what the company contributes to employee 401(k) accounts.

Prior to Armstrong’s planned change, AOL made its contribution to the employee 401(k) plans on a per-pay-period basis, giving the employee the opportunity to invest the company’s contribution immediately. The change was designed to have AOL make its contribution on an annual basis, thus allowing the company to avoid making contributions to employees who leave the company during the year.

Unfortunately, continuing employees, under such a plan, suffer the loss of having the employer contribution available throughout the year to take advantage of opportune moments to invest their retirement funds.

According to Mr. Armstrong, he was forced to make a choice between cutting back on employee healthcare benefits or cutting back on 401(k) contributions as a result of the high costs AOL incurred in caring for the two health challenged infants and the costs to the company brought about by Obamacare.

While the ‘blame it on the employees’ approach is a novel one—or simply the ultimate proof that AOL’s top executive is truly and completely a jerk—what is less than novel is the other excuse Armstrong cited as the reason for cutting back on the company’s contributions to their employees retirement—”Obamacare made me do it.”

Speaking on CNBC, Armstrong said,

“As a CEO and as a management team, we have to decide: Do we pass the $7.1 million of Obamacare cost to our employees? Or do we try to eat as much of that as possible and cut benefits?”

Can anyone blame the AOL boss for following in the footsteps of just about every large company in America seeking to use the Affordable Care Act as cover for lowering the cost of employee benefits in order to boost their bottom line?

As it turns out, yes.

There are doubtlessly hundreds—if not thousands—of big company CEO’s throughout the nation who are seriously ticked off at Mr. Armstrong for his screw-up. By allowing himself to get cornered by the press, Armstrong has inadvertently blown the whistle on what has up until now been a wonderful, if wholly disingenuous, line of BS for employers looking to improve their bottom lines at the expense of their employees.

If only Armstrong had simply put the blame on Obamacare and let it go there, nobody—except for AOL employees—would have noticed. After all, we’ve become more than used to hearing corporations cry the blues about what healthcare reform is doing to their businesses, despite the fact that few have yet to be impacted by the law. One more would have gained scant attention.

But, alas, Armstrong flew too close to the sun.

Not satisfied with using healthcare reform to mask his true intent—or simply insecure in the knowledge that he was trying to pull a fast one with his nonsensical Obamacare argument—Armstrong decided to bring it home by pointing the finger at two employees, blaming them, in part, for his decision to cut back on employee benefits.

Big mistake, Tim.

By putting CEO insensitivity front and center, you allowed everyone to peek behind the curtain only to see that there is is no way AOL is being severely impacted by Obamacare to the tune of seven million dollars a year as you have claimed. That means Americans just might finally wise up and realize they are being had on a regular basis by any number of corporate executives who have been getting away with using Obamacare as cover for cutting employee benefits.

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